Erica Marion

2/14/2015
Mini Lesson 1 Reflection
I think having students work individually and then discussing their writing in small
groups was an effective way to get students engaged in their writing because they were actively
sharing it with just a few of their peers which makes it a low-stakes activity. A few people
commented that they would have enjoyed this lesson more if they had been given some
background information on the novel before they began writing, but, as one person pointed out,
that was really one of the main points of the lesson: to create logical rising action using only the
denoument of the story.
If I were to revamp this lesson after my experience teaching it and after reviewing the
feedback I received from presenting it, I would pick a shorter passage to base the activity on
because it seemed that people were somewhat thrown by the one my partner and I had selected.
It had a lot of pronouns that made it confusing to follow without some contextual information to
accompany it about the characters, setting, etc. I also think it would have been helpful if my
partner and I had put the excerpt on a handout for each student because it was rather difficult to
read on the projector.
I found the experience of designing and presenting a mini lesson to be both challenging
and rewarding. This, in my opinion, would have been a daunting task if I hadnt had a partner to
collaborate with on lesson ideas, formatting, etc. It was actually a pretty fun experience trying to
narrow down such a wide array of ideas for a lesson that both my partner and I had thought up to
something that I feel turned out to be an engaging lesson.